Kurt Kleinendorst anticipated the question was coming even before it was asked.

“I know at some point there’s going to be a question about (Thomas) Chabot,” said the Ottawa Senators’ minor league coach at the team’s rookie tournament. “We know Chabot’s a good player. We know at some point he’s going to get to the NHL. At the same time I don’t think it’s fair to him to keep throwing these high, high, high expectations on him.”

The fact that the Senators are already in damage control concerning their prized prospect is a bit premature. But it’s also a nice problem to have.

It means that Chabot, who was drafted 18th overall in 2015, is not your run-of-the-mill rookie. Far from it, actually. He’s not only expected to make the team this year, but with Marc Methot gone and Erik Karlsson potentially starting the season on the injured list, he might also get a chance to make a serious impact and challenge for the Calder Trophy.

Best of all, Chabot is not alone.

While The Hockey News ranked the 20-year-old defenceman as the No. 3-overall prospect in the NHL in its latest Future Watch magazine, Ottawa forwards Colin White (12th overall) and Logan Brown (14th) were also ranked in the top-15. The last time the Senators had something like this to be excited about was when Mika Zibanejad, Jakob Silfverberg and Patrick Wiercioch entered the league together in 2012.

For a team that was one win away from defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins and reaching the Stanley Cup final last year, it bodes well for the immediate and long-term future of the franchise.

“We were talking about it last night. It’s a good group of guys here,” said Brown, who was selected with the 11th overall pick in 2016. “Just in the skates before coming here, guys were saying they’ve never seen a rookie camp like this. Usually there’s a bunch of fillers, but now there’s a whole crop of guys who are really talented and have a chance to play in the NHL one day.”

It’s easy — and maybe a tad unfair — to look at Ottawa’s trio of prospects and compare them to what Toronto had a year ago in Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. After all, Matthews was a No. 1 overall pick and at this time last year Nylander and Marner were ranked as the No. 2 and No. 3 best prospects in the NHL. But the success of the Leafs’ rookies, which also included Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev and Zach Hyman, is not lost on the Senators’ next wave of youngsters.

“A bunch of those young guys came in and made an impact right away,” White, who was drafted 21st overall, said of Toronto’s rookies. “They made the playoffs last year, which was great for them. I think we have an older team now but there’s so many young guys coming up and it’s an exciting future for Ottawa.”

Said Chabot: “Any players that get into the NHL on a team, they want to help the team to win, they want to make an impact. If I have a chance to play with the Ottawa Senators this year, I want to get on the team and help the team to win and make a good impact on them.”

At one time, Columbus’ Nikita Filatov, Vancouver’s Cody Hodgson and Florida’s Jacob Markstrom were considered the top-3 prospects in the NHL. So things can change.

For now, the Senators are trying to limit expectations. Kleinendorst joked that Chabot already has enough pressure on him that he doesn’t need his coach to “stand up here and talk about how I just found the next God.” At the same time, the hype is not exactly hyperbole.

Chabot, who became the first defenceman to be named MVP at the world juniors in January, was also named the most valuable player in the Quebec junior league last season. White is also coming off a banner year where he scored seven goals in seven games to help the U.S. win gold at the world juniors, while Brown won a Memorial Cup with the Windsor Spitfires.

There’s legitimate talent there. It’s just a matter of when and how it materializes at the NHL level.

“One year can make a big difference in our world,” said Kleinendorst. “A lot of organizations — in fact most at some point — run through cycles and I just feel our cycle is starting to come back a little bit. Some of the players we have are definitely going to, at some point, find their way to the NHL. That’s very exciting.

“It’s just a matter of when he gets there. Is it this year? It might be. Or if it’s next year he’ll probably play in the NHL for a long time when that day comes.”

Chabot's skills on display in win

TORONTO -- Thomas Chabot did not score a goal, but the highly touted prospect’s playmaking skills were on full display as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 8-2 in Saturday night’s rookie tournament.

Chabot, who was the 18th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, had a pair of assists in the win. But with NHL training camp set to begin next week, it was his two-way game that he seemed more concerned with.

“It’s always great to have the chance to start here, it gets you going for the main camp,” said Chabot. “I’m ready for the jump. They know what I can do on the ice. But they want to see if I can play at both ends of the ice. That’s what I’m focusing on.”

Ottawa received goals from eight different players, including 2016 first-round pick Logan Brown, who had a goal and an assist in the lopsided win.

“What we try to do as a staff is allow our guys to be who they are,” said Belleville Senators head coach Kurt Kleinendorst. “We just want these guys to come out and be more free and play up to their potential so that we give them a fair shot of being evaluated.”